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Saturday, April 18, 2015

'Water Underground'

Water still a potential graveyard for politicians it seems.

This post content through from an ex-Lincolnite, promoting a song by Anthonie Tonnon...

"We're used to vocal (often artistic in one way or another) individuals like Sam Mahon who have been highly critical of the removal of the democratically elected Councillors in 2010 and the associated 'grab' for Canterbury's water. In recent times there has emerged another artist who has joined the fray  - though from a different perspective. Former Dunedin singer-songwriter Anthonie Tonnon, who I'd argue is also a great storyteller having seen him play live recently, has written and sung about arguably the core the government's 2010 decision Canterbury's groundwater, the Water Underground..."



I'm still in awe 
at how you pulled it all off 
and driving through the drylands 
seeing irrigators installed 
I think about the coup 
you turned the rules on themselves 
you engineered that miracle 
to free the water underground 

they said you'd never take the council down 
but you just found your way around 

called it a national crisis 
you were in bed with the press 
you understood from experience how to 
make it fast and hard to digest oh you 
left them dumbfounded, unemployable 
chose their replacements yourself 
all their science from the cities couldn't keep you 
from the water underground 

they said you'd never take the council down 
but you just found your way around 
nine years out of power 
you had time to think it out 

she was one of those friends 
followed the rabbit hole to its end 
and you knew what it meant 
to get involved 

and the industry couldn't help you 
no, none of the farmers who owed you 
they let you fight in that pit alone 

but with elections still on hold 
with the cattle turning up by the truckload 
you can hear the drills working now 
on that water underground

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Lincoln Maori researchers secure more Vision Matauranga funding...

Ka mau te wehi!

Maori researchers at Te Whare Wananga o Aoraki (Lincoln uni) have secured VM funding for 2015.

Dr. Amanda Black (Tuhoe) and Melanie Mark-Shadbolt (Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) are developing a National Maori Biosecurity Network, and Dr. Jamie Ataria (Rongomaiwahine, Ngati Kahungunu, and Ngati Tuwharetoa via Cawthron, but we claim him too!) is on a project to improve water quality and river well-being.

Well done!

This success continues a show Lincoln University has developed some heft in the VM space, although we would be the first to acknowledge the VM is just one part of 'KM' (Kaupapa Maori)...


Friday, April 10, 2015

The Nature of Wellbeing: How ecosystem services contribute to the wellbeing of New Zealand and New Zealanders

After much gestation, this Department of Conservation (DoC) contracted report by Lincoln University researchers (and a couple of ring-ins including Robert Costanza) is now released.

We define ‘ecosystem services’ (ES) as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystems are widely considered to provide four categories of services: supporting (e.g. nutrient cycling, soil formation and primary production); provisioning (e.g. food, fresh water, wood, fibre and fuel); regulating (e.g. climate regulation, flood and disease regulation, and water purification); and cultural (aesthetic, spiritual, educational and recreational).

Interactions between ecosystem services, human needs, satisfiers and wellbeing.


Of course ecological systems have played an important role in the survival and development of Māori as a people, as they have for all societies. However, Māori identity also has more subtle connections with the land and water, such that ‘Māori aspirations and well-being are interdependent on ecosystems and ecosystem services’ (Harmsworth & Awatere 2013: 274). The relationships continue to be recited through ancient waiata/songs and whakataukī/proverbs, which rekindle the breadth and depth of their engagement with the enveloping ecosphere (Kawharu 2002; Selby 2010).

The report is available through the DoC website.


Thursday, April 09, 2015

First Aboriginal protester...

Drawn to this korero of Anthony Fernando, first Aboriginal protester, who took his People's fight to the Mother Country, at one point standing for three years outside Australia House in Britain wearing a coat with wee skeletons pinned to it. Brother got arrested...

Painting of Fernando in the National Museum of Australia, by Raj Nagi

A researcher, Fiona Paisley, has found three small notebooks in which Fernando recorded his experiences and impressions.


Fernando got arrested outside the Vatican too, and continued to travel around Europe publicising how Britain took what wasn't her's and brutally suppressed First Australians as part of the ugly Imperial venture...



The notebooks are being digitised. A book by Paisley, 'The Lone Protester', is available through Aboriginal Studies Press.


References: http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/aboriginal-activist-campaigned-europe-100-years-agohttp://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/aboriginal-activist-campaigned-europe-100-years-ago
Simon Lambert

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